The present invention relates to a method of storing and preparing on the one hand alphanumeric data occurring at short periodic intervals and on the other hand image material occurring at long periodic intervals, using a personal card as the storage medium.
In the long-term observation of sequences, there often occur on the one hand data which are picked up at short periodic intervals, for example several times a day, and on the other hand image material generated at greater time intervals for assessing long-term changes, a relationship existing, or having to be deduced, between the alphanumeric data determined at short periodic intervals and the long-term changes.
Such long-term observations may concern, for example, patients with chronic disorders. In such cases there may occur on the one hand data which the patient himself determines without involvement of the doctor at short time intervals in the form of alphanumeric data and which are to be available for the medical examinations carried out at greater time intervals, since they provide important indications for the further therapy of long-term changes possibly discovered by the doctor. The long-term observation by the doctor on the basis of examinations at relatively great time intervals, for example including photographic comparative examinations, can be supplemented by the preparation of the short-term observations determined by the patient himself and can contribute to increase effectiveness of the therapy.
The long-term observation of a diabetic by a doctor comprises, for example, inter alia, half-yearly comparative examinations of the ocular fundus, in each case photographic records of the ocular fundus being produced and compared. On the other hand, the patient determines, inter alia, his blood-sugar level several times a day. The evaluation of short-term variations in the blood-sugar level can provide the doctor with important indications in conjunction with changes of the ocular fundus.
For effective long-term therapy, it is consequently desirable to have available in each case both the observations carried out by the patient at short periodic intervals and the comparative examinations carried out at longer periodic intervals. In the interests of the mobility of the patients, it would be desirable furthermore for the patient to be able to carry on him the data required for a highly informative case history.
Therefore, it has already been proposed on several occasions (see e.g. European-Patent Application 467,693) to use as the storage medium for health-relevant data optical memory cards in credit card format which can be written to and read from by means of laser-beams ("WORM"=Write Once Read Many Memory). On account of technical development in recent years, such optical memory cards have achieved storage capacities of several megabytes, in particular 4 to 6 megabytes. The corresponding reading/writing devices for such optical memory cards are not suitable, however, to be carried on a patient.